Linda Cronenwett, PhD, RN, FAAN

Dean Emeritus and Professor

Dr. Cronenwett is the Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Executive Nurse Fellows program. She is also Dean Emeritus and Professor of the School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to her appointment as Dean, she was the Sarah Frances Russell Distinguished Professor of Nursing Systems at UNC-Chapel Hill. From 1984-98, she was an administrator in the Department of Nursing, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, providing leadership in nursing professional practice, research utilization and quality improvement initiatives. In 2012, she completed seven years as principal investigator of a national initiative, Quality and Safety Education for Nurses, with four phases of funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. Cronenwett earned her master’s degree in parent-child nursing from the University of Washington and her undergraduate and doctoral degrees in nursing from the University of Michigan. She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice, and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. The numerous offices she held in professional organizations include president of the New Hampshire Nurses Association, chair of the American Nurses Association’s Congress of Nursing Practice, and secretary of the American Academy of Nursing. In addition, she has served terms of office on the National Institutes of Health National Advisory Council for Nursing Research, the Special Medical Advisory Group on Veterans’ Affairs, and co-chaired the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Identifying and Preventing Medication Errors.

Dr. Cronenwett recently completed service as a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (2005-2011) and the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (2007-2014). She is past-Chair (2011-2013) and current member of the North Carolina Quality Center Board of the North Carolina Hospital Association, and serves on the board of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. She is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Dorothy Garrigus Adams Founder’s Award for Fostering Professional Standards from Sigma Theta Tau International (2009), the Jessie Scott Award for Advancing Nursing Practice, Education and Research from the American Nurses Association (2012), the 25th Anniversary Sustained Influential Leader Award, Eastern Nursing Research Society (2013), and the President’s Award for contributions to improving the quality and safety of healthcare from the American Academy of Nursing (2013).

Recent publications include:

Books and Monographs

Cronenwett, L., & Dzau V. In: Culliton B., Russell, S. (editors). (2010). Who will provide primary care and how will they be trained? Proceedings of a Conference Sponsored by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, Durham, N.C. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. Available at www.josiahmacyfoundation.org.